Main Menu

Secondary Menu

Wood Drill Bits Made of a Spoke

Introduction: Wood Drill Bits Made of a Spoke

Drilling wood, specially if you have to do it by hand, must be done in steps: first a small hole, then a bit larger, then to size. Or as many in-between steps as needed. Woodworkers have collections of drills, but what to do when you have to start from scratch? We start with a drill bit of good quality steel, that is within reach for many people: a bicycle spoke!This step by step Instructable shows you how to make with your bare hands from a bicycle spoke a multi bit wood drill.

The video is shown here:

Step 1: Tools and Materials

As tools you need a hammer, a whetstone and/or a file, a knife or scissers and a chisel. You can use a hammer as anvil. Any hammer is OK. Instead of a sharpening stone, you can grind the spoke on the cement floor or on a stone from the river. As materials you need a bicycle spoke and a strip of rubber from a car inner tyre.

Step 2: Make the Bicycle Spoke Ready

Cut a spoke from a broken bicycle wheel; see photo 1. Cut with a chisel and hammer on a big piece of metal. Cut off the hook at the other end of the spoke: see photo 2. Find something that works as an anvil to support the spoke during cutting. Bend double, try to make a bent like shown in photo 3. A spoke is not easy to bend, use all of your strength. Bind the rubber strip around the loop; see photo 4. Now bend out both ends; see photo 5.

Step 3: Bending

Now we have to bend the two ends in 3 turns together. To do so, insert a long nail through the loop; see photo 1. Take both ends in one hand and the nail in the other and turn. One end has to be bend as we see on photo 2 and 3. After taking the rubber strip off you see the drill ready for hammering. Watch the flat shape if the drill in photo 4.

Step 4: Hammering

The 3 drill bits have to be hammered to become flat and square. This makes that we can file sharp edges as we see in the next step. The straight piercer drill should be beaten square. Watch the video to see how that is done.

Step 5: Sharpening

The 3 drill bits have to get sharpened to become, like a fabric drill bit, sharp edges; see close up photo's. Watch the video to see how sharpening is done.

Step 6: Comfort and Conclusion

In order to increase the grip on the drill we stretch a rubber band around the center. That makes it more comfortable to hold the drill. The multi bit wood drill is now ready for use. First we drill a small hole with the piercer drill by wiggling the drill bit in a left/right move. Next we pre-drill the hole and finish with the loop drill. The last drill bit can be made on size by making the loop smaller or wider in diameter. My conclusion is that people can make in half an hour a wood drill for soft wood. For the survivors under us this instructable is a joy to make. For many people in developing countries, who don't have acces to good tools, this d.i.y. drill is a godsend.

"Technically, a hand driven boring tool is an awl. To be a drill it must use some sort of mechanical advantage. Just because 95% percent of the population no longer knows what an awl is, is no reason to slack off. Now, I must be a way, there are a lot of minor terminology errors out there waiting to be corrected!"

Hmmm ... Perhaps I am only Lieutenant Pedantic, but as a woodworker, I would call such a tool a "gimlet" -- "a small tool with a screw point, grooved shank, and cross handle for boring holes." A true Pedant would note that an awl is "a pointed tool for marking surfaces or PIERCING small holes (as in leather or wood)." (emphasis added). The ROTATIONAL action distinguishes a gimlet (or perhaps a "reamer") from the PIERCING action of an awl, and what is instructed here clearly achieves holiness via rotation.

Now, I must be "away," since there are doubtless many other minor terminology "corrections" to correct ;-)

I have a heavy gauge, rusty, old, bent, (not motor cycle) spoke that I've had in My "possibles box" for years knowing I would use It for something. =////=====> Voted and favorited and not with a 3-D Lazer printer thing. . Thank You. ~(:-})={

Newsletter

Let your inbox help you discover our best projects, classes, and contests. Instructables will help you learn how to make anything!